Revisions to the Accreditation Operating Procedures

The Commission on Accreditation (CoA) approved changes to its Accreditation Operating Procedures to be consistent with new provisions of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. The revisions to Section 5.5 alter the decision options of the appeal panel and the new Section 5.6 provides the process for review of an adverse decision made by CoA that is based solely on financial deficiencies. Sections 5.5 and 5.6 should read as follows.

The CoA’s decision should be affirmed unless:

• there was a procedural error and adherence to the proper procedures would dictate a different decision; or

• based on the record before it, the CoA’s decision was plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.

The appeal panel has the options of:

• upholding the CoA decision;

• amending or reversing the CoA decision or

• remanding the matter to the CoA to address specific designated issues before final action.

The report of the appeal panel will state its decision and the basis of that decision based on the record before the panel. The report of the panel will be addressed to the President of the APA and sent within 30 days of the hearing. Copies will be provided to the chief executive officer of the host institution of a doctoral program or to the responsible administrative officer of an internship or postdoctoral residency program, the Chair of the CoA, the Chair of the Board of Educational Affairs and the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation.

Where an adverse CoA decision is based solely on failure of the program to meet an agency standard pertaining to finances, the program will have one opportunity to seek review of new information by the Commission. The CoA will undertake such a review only where the program can establish, to the CoA’s satisfaction that there is new financial information that:

• was unavailable to the program until after the CoA reached its decision and

• is significant and bears materially on the financial deficiencies identified by the CoA as the reason for the adverse action.

Such a request for review must be received prior to the adverse action becoming final or any appeal hearing, whichever is earlier. A program may seek the review of new financial information as described above only once. Any determination by the CoA made with respect to review requested under this provision does not provide a basis for appeal.